just an update on my now 3 year old, still in full-time french day care... she really came in leaps and bounds the last few weeks in language development. she is using very complex sentences in english, and still occasionally does things like, "my finger est sale, mama!" or "mes mains are sticky!" (just two examples from today) but is getting pretty good about using french and english in the correct context. we made this french lullaby for her when she was a baby, and i was singing it to her the other morning, and she asked me to sing it in english... mama speaks english, so mama should ALWAYS speak english.

we have to make a decision next year as to whether she should go to the french school board, french immersion at the english board, or english core. all three are options in our area that offer preK. the french school board scares me a bit because i feel like i would be effectively cut out of her school career... there is no effort or desire on the part of of that board to accommodate english speakers. but if i actually want her to be academically bilingual, not just conversationally, i think she needs formal schooling in a french setting.

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:36 pmPosts: 1692Location: the land of too much wine and wind

I don't have kids, and don't really plan to, but this thread is totally fascinating.

My grandfather was Greek and immigrated long before my dad was born. He never really spoke Greek with my dad and his brother, so neither of them speak more than a few words or prayers. My grandpa lived with us until I was about 6. I wish he would have spoken to me in Greek. I've tried learning a few times, but keep getting caught up on the alphabet.

_________________I just brought out the carrot sticks. This is war. - paprikapapaya

I love this! When someone speaks spanish to Guineapiglet that usually speaks English to her she'll literally do a double take and look at them like "how do you know that?" as if Spanish is her own secret language that only her and her friends speak. One of my friends has a bilinigual english/spanish speaking child and none of his friends speak spanish. She she said overheard her son explaining to his friends that it's all the same words but grandma gives you what you want quicker if you speak in spanish rather than english which I thought was funny.

Ha, we have the mommy/English thing here too, I'm suspecting. We plan to use the one language at home/one language elsewhere philosophy once Freya is a bit older (speaking Norwegian or English at home, depending on where we live). Now though, as my Norwegian is less than grand, we're each speaking our own languages to her, nearly exclusively, to help train her ear and guide her pronunciation. When I say something to her in Norwegian, without Karl around, she very often waves her hand and says "no...no". It's really weird and funny. She doesn't seem to mind if he's there though.

updating about the japanese with FC: a lot of her resistance had to do with normal teenage squickiness, not it being too late. she's picked up reading just fine, and when she's listening to music i hear her imitating the sounds that are the real killers for english speakers in japanese [ryu, ryo, long vowels, rising/falling intonation] and she's just fine. as it's the 4th language and the first non-romance i think her confusion about structure is normal, or at least consistent with the other kids i used to teach in the US.i'm glad we started and didn't just say "oh too late."

Can I just say how incredibly impressed I am that FC speaks 4 languages?

Even now, at 41, I am still so grateful that my parents set us up to speak several languages, It has made it so much more fun to travel and given me a broader field from which to learn and draw inspiration. I am sure FC is going to be really grateful you started as well :)

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

It really is the best thing one can do for their child to speak to them in the parents native language. If living in the US/Canada/UK, they will learn English quickly from their surroundings. I've been speaking spanish to all 3 since birth. Exclusively too. But, #1 only spoke spanish till #2 started speaking and started speaking in mostly English. Now the 2 oldest mostly speak English, even though I speak to them in Spanish. All of the words that the youngest says are in Spanish (mostly agua, te-tea, pan-bread). So we'll see about him.. At least they all understand spanish. If they were surrounded by Spanish then I know they would be speaking it more. I'm also teaching them French, and they're doing pretty well..

Miles is being raised bilingual. I speak English to him and my husband speaks Italian to him. Reno is starting to pick up Italian also as am I in this whole process.

I'm with Miles most of the time so he mostly hears English from me and my parents but most of the words he says are in Italian! There are some days that I have no idea what he is saying to me so I'll call my husband and ask "how do you say sock in italian?" and sure enough that's the word that Miles has been saying over and over. The other day in Target he's screaming "bambola!" "bambola!". I had no idea what was going on. We walked past a giant cage of balls and I knew that wasn't the word for ball (palla). I ask my husband and it turned out he was screaming "doll!" "doll!" and I remembered that the dolls were in the next aisle.

I've meet a lot of parents recently who are bilingualing their children and most of the kids go to Russian school or German school on Saturdays to keep up with it as they get older. I'm really tempted to look up Italian school for the kids!

You should, it's surprising what's out there!! I wish I could get V into little Dutch school (it doesn't start 'til preschool and is mostly for expats). We tried to do Czech toddler school, with me learning along side her, but there wasn't enough enrollment for the youngest class. (I can get by in Russian so picking up other slavic languages is pretty quick for me - learned a little bit of polish the other week when V's BFF visited with her mom and Polish daddy!)